Each week, we search New York City for the most exciting, and thought-provoking, shows, screenings, and events. See them below.
Through Wednesday, January 3
Charles White’s Black Pope (Sandwich Board Man) (1973). Image courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art. © 2017 The Charles White Archives.
1. “Charles White—Leonardo da Vinci. Curated by David Hammons” at the Museum of Modern Art
It’s your last chance to see the latest show in MoMA’s “Artist’s Choice” series, featuring David Hammons’s tribute to his late teacher, Charles White. The artist has paired White’s massive 1973 painting Black Pope (Sandwich Board Man), a piece in the museum’s collection, with a 16th-century Leonardo da Vinci drawing in brush and ink, on loan from the British Royal Collection. Hammons also commissioned Vedic astrologer Chakrapani Ullal to compare the star charts for the two artists, who were both born in early April.
Location: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street
Price: $25
Time: 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Thursday, January 4
Alicia Hall Moran’s Here Today. Album art: Amy Sherald’s What’s precious inside of him does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence (All American), 2017. Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery.
2. Alicia Hall Moran performance at Gavin Brown’s enterprise
Mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran makes a point of collaborating with visual artists, musicians, poets, and writers. Her new album Here Today features cover art by Amy Sherald, recently tapped to paint Michelle Obama for the Smithsonian. In a special performance and cocktail reception at Gavin Brown, Moran will be joined by guest performer Jason Moran, hot off his Performa outing with painter Julie Mehretu. Brooklyn-based artists Erik Mosokwitz and Amanda Trager will also debut a new video work created for the album. Dress code is “festive.”
Location: Gavin Brown’s enterprise, 439 West 127th Street
Price: Free
Time: 6 p.m.–9 p.m.
Through Friday, January 5
Bridgid Berlin’s Untitled (double-exposure with Eiffel Tower and Arc De Triomphe) (c. 1971). Photo courtesy of Nathalie Karg Gallery.
3. “Polaroids: The Disappearing” at Nathalie Karg Gallery
In many ways, the Polaroid camera, capable of instantly freezing a moment in time into a still image, is a precursor to our modern Instagram age. This group exhibition brings together Polaroid photographs taken by artists including Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, Maripol, Dennis Hopper, William Wegman, and Nari Ward.
Location: Nathalie Karg Gallery, 291 Grand Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Through Saturday, January 6
Cai Dongdong’s The Mountain Cutters (2017). Photo courtesy Klein Sun Gallery, ©Cai Dongdong.
4. “Cai Dongdong: Photography Autocracy” at Klein Sun Gallery
Incorporating historic photographs from communist China, Cai Dongdong’s mixed-media installations expand the image beyond the flat surface, creating compelling and playful compositions that transform each piece into an almost interactive experience.
Location: Klein Sun Gallery, 525 West 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Through Sunday, January 7
An installation view of the “War and Pieced” exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum. Photo courtesy of Olya Vysotskaya/the American Folk Art Museum.
5. “War and Pieced: The Annette Gero Collection of Quilts from Military Fabrics” at the American Folk Art Museum
Quilts are traditionally associated with women makers, but this exhibition, the first of its kind in the US, showcases complex geometric quilts created by male soldiers from British military uniforms during colonial conflicts in the 19th century. Drawn from the collection of quilt authority Annette Geo, the show also features earlier examples of military quilts from the Prussian and Napoleonic wars, made with felted wool in a special technique pictorial called inlaid or intarsia that often features thousands of individual pieces of fabric.
Location: American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square (Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets)
Price: Free
Time: Monday–Thursday, Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m.; Friday, 12 p.m.–7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.
Through Saturday, January 13
General Idea’s 1968 General Idea Shaped Ziggurat Painting #5 (1986). Image courtesy of Mitchell-Innes & Nash.
6. “The Estate of General Idea: Ziggurat” at Mitchell-Innes & Nash
Canadian art collective General Idea (1969–1994), made up of Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal, and AA Bronson, gets its first solo show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash. The exhibition highlights their use of the ziggurat motif, an architectural form common to both the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica and to modern skyscrapers.
Location: Mitchell-Innes & Nash, 534 West 26th Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Through Saturday, January 20
Arturo Herrera’s Untitled (2017), detail. Image courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
7. “Arturo Herrera: Paintings” at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
In this new series of abstract paintings, Arturo Herrera abandons the elements of collage that have often characterized his work, achieving the same sense of complex layering and texture through the use of paint alone.
Location: Sikkema Jenkins & Co., 530 West 22nd Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Through Sunday, January 21
Arthur Szyk’s My People. Samson in the Ghetto, (The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto) (1945), detail. Image courtesy of the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley.
8. “Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art” at the New-York Historical Society
Arthur Szyk’s (1894–1951) incredibly detailed drawings are jewel-like, recalling medieval illuminated manuscripts, but these are no religious icons. A Polish Jew who immigrated to the United States, Szyk made deeply political work, denouncing Hitler’s persecution of the Jews and the horrors of the Holocaust, as well as racism against African Americans. His anti-Fascist propaganda and other illustrations, which demonstrate his mastery of draftsmanship and composition, appeared on the cover of TIME magazine, but Szyk was largely forgotten after his death. This tiny exhibition at the New-York Historical Society, an inspired show-stopper that feels incredibly timely in the light of a resurgence in white supremacism in the US, should go a ways toward rectifying that injustice.
Location: New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West at Richard Gilder Way (West 77th Street)
Price: $21
Time: Tuesday–Thursday, Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Through Saturday, January 27
“Function to Freedom: Quilts and Abstract Expressions” at Sara Kay Gallery. At left, Victoria Manganiello’s El Trifinio (2015). Photo by Adam Reich; courtesy of Sara Kay Gallery.
9. “Function to Freedom: Quilts and Abstract Expressions” at Sara Kay Gallery
In her second exhibition, Sara Kay is pairing the work of two very different brands of women artists: 19th-century American quilt-makers and Abstract Expressionist painters, highlighting similarities in their compositions. Side by side with paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Yayoi Kusama, and Louise Nevelson, these antique quilts are easily recognizable as artworks in their own right. The show also includes an installation by contemporary textile artist Victoria Manganiello.
Location: Sara Kay Gallery, 4 East Street
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Friday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday, 12 p.m.–5 p.m.
Through Wednesday, January 31
David Attie’s Truman Capote. Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Historical Society.
10. “Truman Capote’s Brooklyn: The Lost Photographs of David Attie” at the Brooklyn Historical Society
In 2014, Eli Attie discovered the archives of his father, the late photographer David Attie, whose first paying job, back in 1958, was actually creating photo illustrations for Truman Capote’s novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s. A year later, Attie photographed Capote for a magazine essay the author was writing about living in Brooklyn. The two men spent a day walking the streets, taking some 800 photographs that captured a slice of life in the borough. The Brooklyn Historical Society presents 40 of those images, including three of Capote, who is also represented with quotes from the resulting article, “Brooklyn: A Personal Memoir.”
Location: Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn
Price: $10 suggested donation
Time: Wednesday–Sunday, 12 p.m.–5 p.m.
“24:7” installation view. with Tamar Ettun, Its Not a Question of Anxiety video still. Photo courtesy of ZAZ10TS.
11. “24/7” at ZAZ10TS
Produced by Tzili Charney, “24/7” is showcasing video art by an international consortium of artists around the clock. It’s the first project for arts initiative ZAZ10TS, which has free reign over the new second-story billboard at 10 Times Square and is dedicated to promoting emerging art. The 55 featured artists include Amy Khoshbin, Jessica Segall, Nir Evron, and Yael Bartana.
Location: ZAZ10TS, 10 Times Square (West 41st Street and Broadway)
Price: Free
Time: All hours